Nietes, Suarez rip rivals in King's Cup

MANILA, Philippines - Light flyweight Gerson Nietes and featherweight Charly Suarez made good impression on their debut with the national team, fashioning out victories over their respective rivals to breeze through the second round of the 31st King’s Cup boxing tournament at the Gwangwongwan Mall in Bangkok, Thailand Saturday.

The diminutive Nietes, from Negros Occidental, rallied from a second round deficit to beat aggressive Wardie Halder, 23-19, of Syria in their 54-kg clash.

Suarez dominated Chantasone Xayyalak, 12-1, of Laos in the 57-kg. division.

The Smart-Team Philippines, whose campaign is sanctioned by the Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines (ABAP) and supported by the Philippine Sports Commission, matched Thailand’s 2-0 start in the tournament which includes top boxing teams from Korea, China and Turkmenistan, all with one win apiece.

Although Nietes took an early 3-2 lead, he allowed the game Syrian to dictate the pace and grab the initial round, 8-6, even trailing further back, 9-13, after two rounds.

But Nietes, through the prodding of coaches Ronald Chavez and Elmer Pamisam, fought back with uppercuts and hand speed in the third round and scored 14 points to hack out the victory.

The 20-year-old Suarez, on the other hand, shrugged off a slow start as he stepped up the pace halfway through the first round and overwhelmed his Laotian rival the rest of the fight en route to a 12-1 romp.

Two more Filipino boxers were to climb the ring in Day 2 of action Sunday.

Strutting their wares against Thai opponents were flyweight Aston Francis Palicte (51 kg.) and veteran Genebert Basadre in the light welterweight class (64 kg.).

“The boys are nevertheless undaunted,” said Ed Picson, ABAP executive director and head of the Filipino contingent. “They prepared long and hard for this, and they’re in high spirits.”

“The crowd may be boisterous, but we’re happy to note that there are Filipino expats to support our team. They promised to bring more kababayans on Sunday,” he added.